14 Dog Hacks That Make Life With a Dog Easier

The rubber glove one alone is worth the scroll. These dog hacks are the practical end of dog ownership: the fixes for hair welded into a couch cushion, hair spun through a car seat, breath that could strip paint, and a coat that smells again a day after the bath. Some take a minute and cost nothing, like a muffin tin and a dozen tennis balls turned into a brain game, or a squeegee and a spray bottle pulled across the back seat. Others are small builds and kitchen projects: four ingredient biscuits, green breath treats, a fleece heating pad, and a rope ball with dog biscuits knotted inside it. Every tutorial links back to the person who figured it out.

DIY Dog Hacks

1. Create Grooming Caddy

Teal metal bucket caddy labeled Pampered Pooches holding dog brushes, shampoo, a spray bottle and a bandana

One tote caddy holds everything you need to clean a dog, and it travels, which is the whole point. Dogs get washed in the shower in winter and in a kiddie pool in summer, nails get clipped in the bathroom, and the long haired one gets brushed on the front steps, so a fixed shelf of supplies is useless. Into the caddy go shampoo for each dog, toothpaste, brush, ear cleaner, nail clippers, detangling spray and the bandanas. It lives in a bathroom cabinet between uses and comes out whole.

Get the full tutorial at IHeart Organizing.

2. Muffin Tin Dog Game

Collage titled Muffin Tin Dog Game over a black poodle mix beside a muffin tin with a tennis ball in every cup

Break treats small, drop a few into random cups of a muffin tin, cover every cup with a tennis ball, and set it down. The dog smells which cups are loaded and has to work out how to shift the balls, which is a scent problem and a paws problem at once. Setup takes a minute and the tin is already in your cupboard. One detail worth copying: a silicone muffin tin does not slide across the floor the way a metal one does, which keeps the game from turning into a chase.

Get the full tutorial at Yes Missy.

3. 4 Ingredient Dog Biscuits

Pile of pale bone shaped dog biscuits on a black and white paw print patterned napkin on weathered white wood

One small overripe banana, half a cup of peanut butter, a third of a cup of chicken or beef stock and a cup of wheat flour, cut with a bone cutter and baked at three fifty for sixteen to eighteen minutes. A half cup of powdered brewer’s yeast is optional and goes in for flea support. The banana has to be genuinely overripe or the dough will not come together. Check your peanut butter label before anything else, because xylitol is in a lot of reduced sugar brands and is dangerous for dogs.

Get the full tutorial at My Incredible Recipes.

4. Bell Train Your Dog To Go Outside

Photo titled How To Bell Train Your Dog To Go Outside over a chocolate labrador sitting at a white door with a bell

A large jingle bell on the doorknob of the door you actually use, and high value treats soft enough to break small. Move the dog’s nose to the bell yourself, and the second it sounds, praise hard and open the door. Treats come only when the dog eliminates outside, never for the ring, which is what stops a dog who rings all evening for company. The author’s seven month old lab had it within eight to twelve hours. Start on a mild week, because you will be answering that bell every time.

Get the full tutorial at Endlessly Inspired.

5. Housebreak Your Puppy Without a Crate

Photo titled How To Housebreak Your Puppy Without A Crate over a cream English bulldog puppy on a grey background

Baby gates instead of a crate, corralling off a non carpeted area, and the floor lined with newspaper edge to edge. That last word is the one that matters: line it entirely, because a puppy will find the one bare square you left. Then it is supervision. Watch for the circling with the nose down and the drifting towards the door, and go out at every one of them. Accidents happen anyway. Firm voice, never physical, and none of the old nose rubbing business, which does nothing at all.

Get the full tutorial at DogVills.

6. Best Way To De-Hair Your Couch

Pink rubber gloved fingers rubbing a cream microfiber couch cushion, loose white dog hair gathered into a twist on the seam

A rubber washing up glove. That is the hack, and it beats the vacuum attachment and the lint roller by a distance on hair that has been rubbed into a cushion by a dog who sleeps there eight hours a day. Put the glove on and rub the fabric in circles first, then any direction at all once it starts working. The hair gathers itself into little rolled clumps that you then lift with a couple of sheets of lint roller paper or run the vacuum over. A former groomer adds in the comments that the same glove works on the dog.

Get the full tutorial at Thrifty and Chic.

7. Breath Freshening Dog Treats

Green bone shaped dog treats spilling from a glass jar onto an orange and olive patterned cloth on weathered wood

Homemade greenies, and the ingredient list is long but the logic is simple. Half a cup each of packed fresh mint and chopped parsley do the actual breath work, activated charcoal and diatomaceous earth take on the odour, and liquid chlorophyll is what makes them green. The rest is binder: egg, gelatin, brewer’s yeast, melted coconut oil and ghee, bone broth or warm water, and about four cups of garbanzo bean flour. Four hundred degrees for ten to fifteen minutes. A month at room temperature, longer in the freezer.

Get the full tutorial at Health Starts In The Kitchen.

8. DIY Dog Heating Pad

Collage titled DIY Dog Heating Pad over a cream cocker spaniel lying on a green fleece mat printed with Scottie dogs

A flat quilted fleece pad sized to the dog rather than to a standard pattern, which is the advantage of making it. A shop bought bed is a shape the dog may not want, while a pad lies flat by the fire or drops into a crate and folds away when it is not needed. Fleece washes well and dries fast, and quilting the two layers together in a grid is what stops the filling migrating to one end after three washes. Measure the dog lying flat at full stretch and add a few inches each way.

Get the full tutorial at Diana Rambles.

9. DIY Dog Paw Wipes And Spray

Collage titled DIY Dog Paw Wipes And Spray over hands wiping a bulldog's paw and squeezing out a foamy white wipe

One solution, two formats. Three cups of water, a tablespoon of Dawn, two tablespoons of coconut oil and two tablespoons of three percent hydrogen peroxide, poured either over a halved paper towel roll in a lidded jar for wipes or into a spray bottle. Dawn lifts dirt and allergens, coconut oil handles pads that crack in winter, peroxide does the antibacterial work and brightens dirty white fur. Use distilled water if yours is hard. Not the antibacterial Dawn, no essential oils, store it dark and replace it every six months.

Get the full tutorial at Chemistry Cachet.

10. Use A Squeegee To Remove Dog Hairs From Your Car

White and green window squeegee and a small purple spray bottle propped on a black cloth car seat covered in pale dog hair

A squeegee and a spray bottle of plain water, dragged across upholstery, pulls embedded hair up out of the weave in a way a vacuum simply does not. Mist the seat lightly first, because the damp is what makes the hair clump and lift instead of scattering. Then short pulls in one direction, gathering the hair into rows as you go. It works on the back seat, the fronts and the carpets. Vacuum or pick the rows up afterward, and the same pass works on a couch if you have a spare squeegee.

Get the full tutorial at Care A Bear A Sara.

11. DIY Dip Dyed Rope Dog Leash

Collage titled DIY Ombre Rope Leash over two dip dyed rope leashes, one black to white and one purple to cream

Two to two and a quarter yards of three eighths inch cotton rope, two rope clamps, one snap hook and a bottle of RIT liquid dye. Soak the rope in warm water first, then dip and pull it out quickly, re dipping at different heights to build the gradient. Hang it dark end up and squeeze the excess down the length, which is what makes the fade spread smoothly rather than banding. Up to twenty four hours to dry properly. Three strand rope gives a subtler ombre than braided, and leather scraps hide the clamps.

Get the full tutorial at Curbly.

12. Rope Ball Surprise Dog Toy

Large white knotted cotton rope ball beside a glass jar of pale dog biscuits on Santa print wrapping paper

One hundred and five inches of one inch thick cotton rope, tied into a monkey’s fist with three wraps per section, with a treat dropped inside before the final tightening. It finishes at around nine inches across. Twist ties on both rope ends stop the fraying while you work and come off before the dog gets it. The treat is the reason the toy stays interesting, so replace it every so often once the dog works out how to get it. Cotton is the safe choice, and check anything else with your vet.

Get the full tutorial at Hands Occupied.

13. DIY Chalkboard Bowl Under $5

Brown dachshund sitting outdoors on concrete beside a white bowl with a black chalkboard painted base lettered with its name

A plain ceramic bowl, painter’s tape around the rim to mask off the inside, and chalkboard spray paint on the outside in even coats. Season the surface before the first use by rubbing chalk over the whole painted area and wiping it off, which is what stops the first thing you write ghosting permanently. The bowl in the source was four dollars from a homeware shop. It has to be hand washed, not put through a dishwasher, and the paint belongs strictly on the outside where food never touches it.

Get the full tutorial at Ammo the Dachshund.

14. Stinky Dog? 5 Home Remedies That Actually Work

Five approaches for a dog who smells even straight out of the bath, which is usually a skin problem rather than a dirt problem. A selenium sulfide wash, two or three squirts rubbed in well and left ten minutes before rinsing, is the weekly option, with the skin folds getting the attention. Apple cider vinegar shows up three ways: half a cup with half a cup of water on the coat, a teaspoon per forty pounds twice a day by mouth, or half and half with green tea as a rinse. Flax oil handles it from the inside.

Get the full tutorial at Sueeye.